Happy Earth Day from Kathleen Rogers
Message from Kathleen Rogers, President of Earth Day International, for the Earth Day 2026 event “Climate Education: Towards a More Sustainable Future” organized by the Antonio Emanuele Augurusa Foundation in Filogaso, Calabria, Italy
Kathleen Rogers, Presidente di Earth Day Network, ha lavorato per oltre vent’anni come avvocata e attivista ambientale, concentrandosi sulle politiche pubbliche e sul diritto ambientale, sia a livello nazionale che internazionale. Ha ricoperto incarichi di alto livello presso la National Audubon Society, l’Environmental Law Institute e due Comitati Organizzatori delle Olimpiadi degli Stati Uniti. Ha inoltre lavorato per Garth Associates a New York e per lo studio legale Beveridge & Diamond, dove ha sviluppato una pratica specializzata nella difesa dei reati ambientali dei colletti bianchi. È stata caporedattrice della University of California at Davis Law Review e ha svolto il tirocinio forense presso il giudice John Pratt della United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Ha inoltre collaborato con la Delegazione degli Stati Uniti alla Conferenza delle Nazioni Unite sulle Donne.
It is with immense pleasure and a genuine sense of closeness that I send these words to Filogaso, to the Antonio Emanuele Augurusa Foundation, and to all who have gathered here today to celebrate Earth Day 2026.
I wish I could be with you in person. But, though far away, I feel connected to you in what you are doing, because the work taking place today in Calabria speaks directly to the values that have guided the Earth Day Movement for over 50 years. I feel a particular connection to this community: having had the privilege last year of contributing as an instructor to the Green Social Impact Manager course, I have seen firsthand the quality, as well as the ambition, of what the Foundation is building.
Here at EARTHDAY.ORG, we have long believed that the Planet can no longer wait, and that those who will help save it will not only be the powerful and privileged, but each of us—especially those who have too often been overlooked.
The “green transition” is not simply an environmental imperative. It is a social imperative. The concept of “just transition” reminds us that how we transition matters as much as achieving it. If we create a green economy that leaves behind the most vulnerable, those who live on the margins of our Planet, those who need resources most of all—well, in that case we will not have created any “green economy.” We will have simply replicated a more “green” version of the same old inequalities.
This is why the work of the Antonio Emanuele Augurusa Foundation is so important and resonates so strongly with Earth Day’s mission. Offering young people free, high-quality professional training, supporting the most disadvantaged communities, and connecting people with concrete opportunities in the sectors that will shape our common future: this is how a just ecological transition takes shape, one person, one community, one territory at a time.
The Green Social Impact Manager and Virtus Lab models represent two complementary responses to the same problem. The first prepares young graduates to lead impact initiatives across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. The second offers hands-on technical training—in areas such as renewable energy—and creates direct pathways to companies seeking precisely those skills. Together, they express a profound conviction: “environmental literacy” is not a cultural debate, but an infrastructure of the mind. It shapes entrepreneurs and innovators, develops technical skills, and cultivates the ability to lead, design, and solve. It gives rise to a generation capable of transforming their concern for the future into a vocation and work that has real impact. The Foundation has understood this and has built programs that fully reflect its meaning, valuing the entire spectrum of skills and profiles that the green economy truly needs. Investing in people this way is not an optional extra: it is the concrete way the transition takes shape.
I want to take a moment now to address the youngest participants in this event, who are exploring environmental themes in their workshops today.
We at EARTHDAY.ORG have long maintained that climate education should not be a privilege, but a human right. Every child deserves to fully understand the world they will one day inherit and to feel ready to play a role in reshaping it, regardless of the context in which they grow up or the resources they have. And since climate change is, ultimately, an issue that affects communities, it is the communities themselves that must take an active role in this educational journey, not leaving it to chance, but decisively investing in the new generations.
That the Foundation, the schools, and the entire community have joined forces to make all this happen is no small thing. In fact, it is precisely the kind of collective commitment that future generations deserve, and that we hope to see grow.
Today’s event also brings together local and regional institutions alongside private sector actors, and I believe this too deserves recognition. One of the things I have learned over many years of work is that the green transition cannot be led by a single actor. It needs institutions willing to create the necessary conditions, businesses ready to invest and hire, civil society organizations willing to take risks for the communities they represent, and people ready to step up.
What you have created today in Filogaso is precisely a microcosm of this alliance.
Today, on this Earth Day, I ask you to carry this work forward. To the young participants in the Foundation’s programs, Green Social Impact Manager and Virtus Lab: the World needs your skills, and it needs them now. To the children in the workshops: keep asking questions.
To the institutions, businesses, and civil society representatives gathered here: keep investing in people. And to the Antonio Emanuele Augurusa Foundation, to its President Francesco Augurusa, and to all those who make this work possible every day: thank you.
You are proof that the change we need is not only possible: in Filogaso it is already underway.
Happy Earth Day.
Kathleen Rogers – President, EARTHDAY.ORG
